White Heat Comics Digest No. 1 is a comic with three stories: Kyla, The Goddess Who Walks the Earth: The Slavers of Szukalski created by Stephen Reid, Amazon John created by Pete Stewart, and Deb Bonair, written by Stephen Reid with art by Rory Hensley. Time for some mini-reviews!
Kyla, The Goddess Who Walks the Earth: The Slavers of Szukalski is a fantasy sci-fi tale about a jungle lady who attempts to put a stop to injustice. This comic has a lot of fighting and it hearkens back to earlier era of comics. The star of this story is Kyla, a genetically engineered jungle woman who sees herself as the one destined to look over those who live near her. The plot is starts off light but gets deeper as the story plays out; introducing multidimensional characters and a variety of motivations. You’ll see aliens, strange science, and dinosaurs. The action is a stark departure of the comics this is paying homage to as things get bloody and gory frequently. This story does get hammy quite a bit and this has a number of wordy pages. This story is 51 pages long.
The art here is very reminiscent of early comics with the same subject matter; everything is thick and the colors are solid. The main location is the jungle but this story does venture to a more enclosed location at some point. The expression level here is pretty good, Kyla is very animated and isn’t good at hiding her emotions. Her face is drawn with enough detail to give it life but there is some face sameness with Kyla and another member of the cast. The creatures here look grotesque when they are supposed and stand out whenever they appear. The action scenes flow great and are very bloody with an unexpected amount of gore. Expect to see things go where they shouldn’t and body parts go their separate ways. Kyla wears what I assume is an animal skin bikini that is maybe a size too small pretty much this entire comic which skews my whole “sexy pages” rating. So yeah she is sexualized.
Amazon John is two pages long. A review seems unnecessary.
Deb Bonair is a short comic about a band of lady space pirates who raid a ship. The crew is made of different species but all of them have a no-nonsense air about them. This is also drawn in an older style but this might be more 70’s than anything. The expressions here are fun to see and the action is decent. This story is 7 pages.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like newer comics with older art and storytelling styles starring jungle women and featuring aliens and space and strong sci-fi elements this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Lots of blood and gore.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Yes. I can hear your heavy breathing from over here!”
“Men wanna be him…”
“Destroy the droids. We’ll use what’s left for spare parts.”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/928224654/white-heat-comics-digest-no1/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 60
Violent Pages: 22, for 37% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 12, for 20% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 4
“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”
“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”
“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”
“This was a tournament arc.”
“All my life I had to fight.”
Gore Level – 5
“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”
“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”
“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”
“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”
“This is a slaughterhouse.”
Death Level – 4
“And everybody lived happily ever after.”
“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”
“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”
“Yeah this was a tragedy.”
“Think Gettysburg.”
Porn Level – 2
“Everybody kept their clothes on.”
“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”
“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”
“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”
“Oh. This is porn.”
